While it's fun to blame commercial manipulators on the other side of our habitual browsing habits, and it's true to a certain extent, I think it's reductive to place all the blame on them. My own personal poisons are reddit and HN comments, neither of which I'd put in the category of conscious manipulators. The problem moreso lies in the fact that I can have a tiny urge for this content and in 3 seconds be satisfied. This is a very short feedback loop, roughly on par with the amount of time it takes for the drag from a cigarette to hit. The "root cause", in my opinion, is that humans are inclined to seek dopamine hits and technology has made them far too available, unlike any other time in our history.
> are reddit and HN comments, neither of which I'd put in the category of conscious manipulators.
Reddit is absolutely in the family of conscious manipulators-- even if it is somewhat less effective at it than facebook or twitter.
Particularly many of the characteristics of the 'new' interface were designed specifically with the intent of increasing "engagement" and they use those usage metrics to drive their further optimizations.
(e.g. infinite scroll, inlining images in the scroll to reduce clicking, aggressively pushing the mobile app and/or login to improve tracking. They've also recently started half-logging-out users who've opted out of 'new', so you have to click login to get your preference honored).
I guess I am replying for the dopamine. All of the other things I have / need to do require more effort. Is typing out a few replies after I have breakfast my morning cigarette in a different time?
A healthier habit?? The problem may be there's no defined end. What did people in the past who didn't smoke do? Newspaper? Magazines?
